Sunday, July 19, 2009

Latitude and Longitude



Me and my faithfull Clarke that has taken my everysteps up the hill to Greenwich.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A Day in Praha





We arrived at Ruzyne International Airport from Stansted on a fine sunday morning. Took a bus and a train to the city and checked into our hotel. We then began our discovery walk. As it was still early, the place was not very crowded. The sight were simply amazing. The whole city is paved and it is like walking through history in the present day.

Praha/Prague is the capital and largest city of Czech Republic. One would often associate Czechoslovakia with Nazi occupation... Stalin...Communism coup...Velvet Revolution...
These are such crucial milestones of the Czech history. But Prague offers more than that. Everybody who visited Prague would instantly fall in love with the place. There is so much history, so much so that you would feel like you are being transported back in time.

Crossing the Charles bridge over the Vltava river took us to the Lesser Town Square. The bridge itself is like walking through an open air museum. Various artists displayed their talents from paintings to carricatures, accessories etc.We then took a tram up the hill to Prague Castle which is one of the largest fortress in Europe.

Befitting its image as one of the World Heritage Site, they have different means and modes of seeing the city, from "walks in Pragues" with tour guides, horse carriage rides, Vintage car rides, and the modern GPS guide !
Souveniers aplenty, but expensive. You find plenty of shops selling amber,garnets and precious stones.

Amongst the old historical buildings and sites, theres the Palladium, a very modern shopping complex. And they are having sales too !

well I got myself a purple suede ankle length boots from a small shop near the hotel.

Friday, July 10, 2009

A short break


I was away for a short break to London and Prague for a week. The trip was planned since last year, but unfortunately the spread of H1N1 the world over has dampened our sprits slightly. Nevertheless we went on as scheduled, with loads of precautionary measures. We brought along facial masks and some medications and a prayer!
when we reached the airport we saw some passengers were already putting on the masks and it was a long and tiring flight. Imagine people eating maggie cup noodles in the flight instead or airline foods! And it was selling at $6 per cup.
We reached Standsted in the evening, still bright and sunny. Took a bus to London and then to our hotel in Paddington. By then Londoners were already having their happy hours drinking beer outside the bars. We reached the hotel, unpack our stuff, had dinner and went straight to bed.
The next morning we woke up early, took a stroll around the area before breakfast and the weather was so nice. That was a great start and we were looking forward to the rest of day and our trip that we forgot about H1N1.
Anyway the first day we went sightseeing around London, places where tourist would normally go. In the afternoon we went to Oxford street looking for good bargains. As usual Oxford street is always very crowded during the summer sales.

Saturday was reserved for the famous Portobello market. True to their name they have lots of interesting goodies, clothes, accessories, antiques, foodstuffs and that slick and fully automated bathrooms with the door panel that rotates.

We also checked out Camden markets which were undergoing with some renovation works in some parts.

A trip to Greenwich was interesting although the walk uphill was an uphill task it was worth it. The museum was really like taking us back in time, with all the antique time pieces,and how it was first created. Thanks to that we now have our new designer timepieces.

After four days in London, we flew to Prague.